Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Blackout looms as Time Warner, Viacom talks stall


READ THE FULL STORY

ALERT! ALERT! ALERT!

Attention Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks customers, starting tonight, you will lose your favorite Comedy Central shows on TV and online because of a dispute with Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. You can stop this! Time Warner Cable customers call 1-800-762-3786 and Bright House Networks customers call 1-866-309-3279, AND DEMAND THEY KEEP YOUR CHANNEL!


The channels that would be affected are: Comedy Central, CMT: Pure Country, Logo, Palladia, MTV, MTV 2, MTV Hits, MTV Jams, MTV Tr3s, Nickelodeon, Noggin, Nick 2, Nicktoons, Spike, The N, TV Land, VH1, VH1 Classic, and VH1 Soul.

Friday, December 12, 2008

The Art of Ralph Steadman



An Overview


Wiki Page
Official Website

Steadman is renowned for his political and social caricatures and cartoons and also for illustrating a number of picture books. Awards that he has won for his work include the Francis Williams Book Illustration Award for Alice in Wonderland, the American Society of Illustrators' Certificate of Merit, the W H Smith Illustration Award for I Leonardo, the Dutch Silver Paintbrush Award for Inspector Mouse, the Italian Critica in Erba Prize for That's My Dad, the BBC Design Award for postage stamps, the Black Humour Award in France, and several Designers and Art Directors Association Awards. He was voted Illustrator of the Year by the American Institute of Graphic Arts in 1979.

Steadman had a long partnership with the American journalist Hunter S. Thompson, drawing pictures for several of his articles and books. He accompanied Thompson to the Kentucky Derby for an article for the magazine Scanlan's, to the Honolulu Marathon for the magazine Running, and illustrated both Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72. Much of Steadman's artwork revolves around Raoul Duke-style caricatures of Thompson: bucket hats, cigarette holder and aviator sunglasses.

Steadman appears on the second disc of the Criterion Collection Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas DVD set, in a documentary called "Fear and Loathing in Gonzovision", which was made by the BBC in 1978, of Thompson planning the tower and cannon that his ashes were later blasted out of. The cannon was atop a 153-ft. tower of Thompson's fist gripping a peyote button; Thompson demands that Steadman gives the fist two thumbs, "Right now."

As well as writing and illustrating his own books and Thompson's, Glorious Mr. Ralph Steadman has worked with writers including Ted Hughes and Brian Patten, and also illustrated editions of Alice In Wonderland, Treasure Island, Animal Farm and most recently, Fahrenheit 451.

Among the British public, Steadman is well known for his illustrations for the catalogues of the off-licence chain Oddbins. He also designed the labels for Flying Dog beer and Cardinal "Spiced" Zin' wine, which was banned in Ohio for Steadman's "disturbing" interpretation of a Catholic cardinal on its label.

Steadman also illustrates Will Self's column in The Independent newspaper. Johnny Depp's anthology of songs, Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys (2006) contains two contributions from Steadman; he sings lead on "Little Boy Billee", and sings backing vocals on Eliza Carthy's song "Rolling Sea".



Some Art Pieces

You can see them here too.

Alice in Wonderland
  • Down the Rabbit Hole



  • White Rabbit head



  • A Mad Hatter Tea Party



  • Party Guests



  • Advice From A Caterpillar



Disney Sketches

  • Disney Fun



  • Captain Hook & Smee



  • The Whale



  • Leaving Disney




Other Images of Interest


  • Drawing Breath



  • Smoking Horse



  • Shakespeare



  • Ink Vomit



  • Freud



  • Dallas Police



  • Bag Head



  • Angry Sun



  • Animal Farm



  • Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas



  • Fahrenheit 451



  • Between the Eyes



  • Napoleon

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Nietzsche Quotes



Short Overview:

Wikipedia
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15, 1844 – August 25, 1900) (German pronunciation: [ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈvɪlhəlm ˈniːtʃə]) was a nineteenth-century German philosopher and classical philologist. He wrote critical texts on religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy, and science, using a distinctive German language style and displaying a fondness for metaphor and aphorism. Nietzsche's influence remains substantial within and beyond philosophy, notably in existentialism and postmodernism. His style and radical questioning of the value and objectivity of truth raise considerable problems of interpretation, generating an extensive secondary literature in both continental and analytic philosophy. Nevertheless, some of his key ideas include interpreting tragedy as an affirmation of life, an eternal recurrence (which numerous commentators have re-interpreted), a rejection of Platonism, and a repudiation of both Christianity (especially 19th-century) and Egalitarianism (especially in the form of Democracy and Socialism).

Nietzsche began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy. At the age of 24 he was appointed to the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel (the youngest individual ever to have held this position),[1] but resigned in 1879 because of health problems, which would plague him for most of his life. In 1889 he exhibited symptoms of serious mental illness, living out his remaining years in the care of his mother and sister until his death in 1900.


The Quotes:
  • In heaven all the interesting people are missing.
  • There are no facts, only interpretations.
  • A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.
  • Out of life's school of war: What does not destroy me, makes me stronger.
  • Only sick music makes money today.
  • It is nobler to declare oneself wrong than to insist on being right - especially when one is right.
  • Without music, life would be a mistake.
  • How good bad music and bad reasons sound when we march against an enemy.
  • To forget one's purpose is the commonest form of stupidity.
  • Faith: not *wanting* to know what is true.
  • Convictions are the more dangerous enemy of truth than lies.
  • He who fights too long against dragons becomes a dragon himself; and if you gaze too long into the abyss, the abyss will gaze into you.
  • Which is it, is man one of God's blunders or is God one of man's?
  • Man is more ape than many of the apes.
  • He who despises himself esteems himself as a self-despiser.
  • There is not enough religion in the world to destroy the world's religions
  • The Christian resolution to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad.
  • In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point.
  • Every extension of knowledge arises from making the conscious the unconscious.
  • Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself.
  • Wisdom sets bounds even to knowledge.
  • In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule.
  • It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them!
  • Morality is the herd-instinct in the individual.
  • One should never know too precisely whom one has married.
  • Believe me! The secret of reaping the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment from life is to live dangerously!
  • One often contradicts an opinion when what is uncongenial is really the tone in which it was conveyed.
  • Jesus died too soon. If he had lived to my age he would have repudiated his doctrine.
  • Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.
  • I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.
  • Hope in reality is the worst of all evils, because it prolongs the torments of man.
  • Undeserved praise causes more pangs of conscience later than undeserved blame, but probably only for this reason, that our power of judgment are more completely exposed by being over praised than by being unjustly underestimated.
  • How people keep correcting us when we are young! There is always some bad habit or other they tell us we ought to get over. Yet most bad habits are tools to help us through life.
  • Experience, as a desire for experience, does not come off. We must not study ourselves while having an experience.
  • The world itself is the will to power - and nothing else! And you yourself are the will to power - and nothing else!
  • In a friend one should have ones best enemy. You should be closest to him with your heart when you resist him.
  • Digressions, objections, delight in mockery, carefree mistrust are signs of health; everything unconditional belongs in pathology.
  • All credibility, all good conscience, all evidence of truth come only from the senses.
  • A subject for a great poet would be God's boredom after the seventh day of creation.
  • Memory says, I did that. Pride replies, I could not have done that. Eventually memory yields.
  • The higher a man gets, the smaller he seems to those who cannot fly.

Tom Waits Quoted
















One of my VERY favorite artists is Mr. Tom Waits. I say artist because he is a musician, poet, singer, songwriter and playwright amongst other things. If you have ever seen or heard any of his live performances you will most definitely catch his humerus bantering and creative story telling. A great example is his VH1 Storyteller's session. His words, phrases and comparisons might be silly and nonsensical, but that's what makes him Tom Waits.

I have compiled a number of his goofy/philosophical/off the wall quotes and want to share them with you. Enjoy.

The Quotes:

  • "There ain't no devil, there's just god when he's drunk."

  • "There's a place down the street; Seven X's. What does that mean? Maybe it's... girls without skin."

  • "It ain't no sin to take off your skin, and dance around in your bones."

  • "All the donuts have names that sound like prostitutes."

  • "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy."

  • "I don't have a drinking problem 'Cept when I can't get a drink."

  • "I knew him when he was nothing and he hasn't changed a bit."

  • "...it seems a stray bullet actually pierced the testicle of a Union soldier and lodged itself in the ovaries of a woman standing approximately 100 ft. away. She's alright, the baby's doing fine...of course the soldier's a little pissed off..."

  • "...You end up taking advantage of yourself. There ain't no way around that."

  • "I'm so goddamn horny the crack of dawn better watch itself around me."

  • "Coleen's belly was shakin' like jelly And I'm gettin' harder than Chinese algebra."

  • "Oh I don't mind going to weddings, just as long as it's not my own..."

  • "And i'm glad that you're gone, but i wish to the lord that you'd come home."

  • "I'm not weird about it or anything (Masturbating in this instance). I don't tie myself up first or anything."

  • "Let me fall out of the window with confetti in my hair" Deal out jacks are better on a blanket by the stairs, I'd tell you all my secrets but I'll lie about my past, So send me off to bed forevermore."

  • "Never trust a man in a blue trench coat, never drive a car when you're dead."

  • "I want to thank you all for being here tonight; it'd be mighty strange here tonight if nobody showed up."

  • "Wake me up in my dreams."

  • "It takes much more than just wild courage Or you'll hit just the tattered clouds you must have just the right bullets And the first one's always free."

  • "The sky turned black and bruised and we had months of heavy rain."

  • "If you've lost all hope/If you've lost all your faith I know you can be cared for/I know you can be safe And all of the shamefuls/And all of the whores And even the soldier who pierced the side of the Lord Is down there by the train."

  • "Broken umbrellas like dead birds; steam comes out of the grill like the whole God-damn town is ready to blow."

  • "...If you want a taste of madness, you'll have to wait in line. You'll probably see someone you know on Heartattack and Vine."

  • "And the moon's teeth-marks are on the sky, Like a tarp thrown all over this."

  • "The cat'll sleep in the mailbox and we'll never go to town, till we bury every dream in the cold cold ground."

  • "Crawlin' down Cahuenga on a broken set of legs..."

  • "And it is such a sad old feeling, All the fields are soft and green. And it's memories that I'm stealing, But you're innocent when you dream."

  • "The piano is fire wood, Times Square is a dream."

  • "Won't you tell me, brave captain why are the wicked, so strong, how can the angels get to sleep when the devil leaves his porch light on."

  • "I know a girl, she been married so many times, she got rice marks all over her face."

  • "Well, I don't mind working cause I used to be jerking off most of the time, in bars."

  • "I lost my St. Christopher now that I've kissed her."

  • "I'm reliable sources, I'll tell ya anything you want me to know."

  • "My friends think I'm ugly, I gotta masculine face."

  • "In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king."

  • "And when they pulled her from the wreck, you know she still had on her shades."

  • "It's harder to get rid of than tattoos."

  • "I don't need no make-up, i got real scars, i got hair on my chest, i look good without a shirt."

  • "'Cause there's nothin' strange About an axe with bloodstains in the barn. There's always some killin' You got to do around the farm."

  • "There's nothing wrong with her that a hundred Dollar's can't fix."

  • "... while making feet for children's shoes ..."

  • "They take apart their nightmares and they leave 'em by the door."

  • "They all come from nice families, but somewhere along the line they picked up ways that just aren't RIGHT."

  • "and the things you can't remember tell the things you can't forget that history puts a saint in every dream."

  • "You can tell me that it's gospel but I know that it's only church."

  • "Matilda asks the sailors `are those dreams or are those prayers?'"

  • "I've got a bottle for a trumpet, a hatbox for a drum..."

  • "The Moon ain't romantic. It's intimidating as Hell."

  • "I did my time in the jail of your arms."

  • "And I floated down stream on an old dead tree."

  • "Cross my wooden leg, swear on my glass eye."

  • "Dig your fingers in the ground. Toss and heave the world around."

  • "She was sharp as a razor and soft as a prayer."

  • "And the earth died screaming As I lay dreaming."

  • "It's new, it's improved, it's old fashioned."

  • "The moon was sharp enough to draw blood from a stone."

  • "One look in his eyes... and everyone denies... ever having met him."

  • "Even jesus wanted just a little more time, when he was walkin' Spanish down the hall."

  • "The rooms, they smell like diesel, and you take on the dreams of the ones that have slept there."

  • "I'll take a rusty nail, scratch your initials in my arm..."

  • "I thought I heard a saxophone, I'm drunk on the moon."

  • "Romeo is bleeding, but not so as you'd notice."

  • "Broadway's like a serpent spewing shiny top-down cars."

  • "I stay in a place called 'Rooms'... There's a whole chain of them."

  • "I've lost my equilibrium, my car keys and my pride."

  • "It's hard to believe that the same moon shining down on this Chinatown fair could shine down on Illinois and find you there... I love you baby."

  • "Tom do this, Tom do that, Tom...don't do that."

  • "I'm gonna make like a bakery delivery truck and haul buns."

  • "I'll ride upon a field mouse, I was dancin' in the slaughterhouse."

  • "I'd like to go drowning, but the ocean doesn't want me today."

  • "The monkey rode a blade on an overhead fan."

  • "Will you sell me one of those if I shave my head."

  • "Well I fell in love with a Gun Street Girl!"

  • "Blew a hole in the hood of a yellow Corvette."

  • "...Well I hear that it pays well. How do your pistol and your Bible and your sleeping pills go?"

  • "Well pale face said to the eyeball kid She just goes clank and boom and steam."


Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Is Steve Jobs, the REAL Dorian Gray!?

A friend told me about this post on Boing Boing Gadgets that I simply just had to read. It's pretty hilarious and the Dorian Gray comparisons of Steve Jobs weight/figure to iPod's weight/figure is a trip! I just extracted a portion of the original post here and linked to the original post below the title.

Enjoy!

Inside Steve's Brain Slices: Marvin Battelle on the Thinness of Mac



"....Let's talk about Steve Jobs. I know many of you are concerned by his weight loss. Over the course of a year, Steve Jobs has gone from the robust picture of what you might call "health" to a ghastly, reptiloid skeleton. His skin is translucent. His eyes insanely bulge from sepulchral hollows bored in a fleshless brainpan, underlined by a yellowing rictus that only stops chattering long enough to shout "BOOM!" with a puff of dust.

Is he sick, you wonder? Jobs had cancer, after all. Maybe it came back? Under a blanket in their grandmother's basements, the Cult of Mac flaps their hands around their heads, mascara streaking down their filthy cheeks as they lift their voice up to a shrill falsetto: "Leave Steve Jobs alone!" The internet divides itself into camps: in one corner, those morbidly fascinated by the prospect of a Fortune 500 tech company being driven by a voodoo-resurrected skeleton. The rest, equally fascinated mingers who pretend that they are somehow above the ghoulish delectability of speculating about a man who seems in the midst of the slow process of teleporting himself to Flatland.

But let me ask you a question: did it ever occur to you that Steve Jobs' growing emaciation and Apple's insane obsession with thinness were linked? That we may all, in fact, be witnessing a Dorian Gray scenario, in which the corporeality of one man is ineffably linked with his own insane philosophical ideal? That the thinner Nano, the thinner MacBooks, the contemptuous dumping of the "fat" iPod Classic have their avatar in the chattering skeleton remote-controlled by Imagineers at every Apple press event? A man who has boasted for years of a caloric intake in the negative? A galvanic leader of men who once — by his mocking repetition of the phrase "You're fat, fatty" over and over and over again — reduced no less a personage than Carrot Top to hysterical tears?

In short, hasn't it ever occurred to you that Steve Jobs is getting thinner at the exact same rate as Apple's products?

BOOM! Oh man. Do you feel that? That sense of cosmic rightness, of understanding the whole universe, of seeing the nebulous weave between all things, like 1,500 milligrams of dextromethorphan plunged right through your trephinated shunt? No, don't struggle: just ride it out, my little poppies. Let it wash all over you. Isn't it wonderful? I feel like this all the time."